The Travellers
by ThePotterDoctor
Summary: When a mysterious force of dark magic arrives, Harry Potter is about to discover there are more things out there than he can even dream of.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Strangers in the Woods

Harry Potter hated his job sometimes. Days like this, where nothing at all interesting was happening and he was stuck at his desk, filling out paperwork upon paperwork whilst Ron got to train the new recruits and Teddy got to take a squad out Dementor hunting. Why on earth he'd accepted the post of Head Auror, he would never know. Then, just as he was beginning to lose the will to live, he spotted something out of the corner of his eye. It was a glorious sight indeed. Simmons was panicking.

The young man stumbled into Harry's office, all blustery and rattled. He drew breath, trying to compose himself as Harry placed his paperwork calmly to one side and stood up, trying desperately hard not to let his joy show. He knew that whatever it was, it was bad, because Simmons was losing his normally ever present composure. And, he was bothering Harry with it. Which meant Harry might finally see some action. He scolded himself silently. He shouldn't need dark wizards to be on the run. He'd never wanted a life of chasing after dark magic and yet somehow, he had gone beyond participating in one, to enjoying one. He craved the thrill of the fight, something that when he'd been starting out, he'd have thought was impossible. He'd lost so much, experienced so much death and yet here he was, desperate for more. He felt a twinge. What would his parents say?

"Mr Potter," Simmons wheezed. "Harry. We have an emergency. We are picking up some extremely dangerous and unknown readings in The Forest of Dean. We're sending a team out there now but it looks to be some unknown form of powerful dark magic that we don't understand. We were hoping you could lead the team. And take…her with you."

"Her? The expert?" Harry's voice had darkened at this. "You know how I feel about her. She is not to be trusted and I loathe going to her for help. After everything she has done…"

"Begging your pardon sir, but we need her. She's the only one who might be able to decipher this branch of magic. Not even your friend Miss Granger could do it."

"Fine. Get the expert." Harry was annoyed. His day had just been getting good. "We disapparate within the hour. I'll take Jones, Montague and Carster. Have them meet the expert outside the Ministry. And for God's sake, will somebody find Weasley?"

"He's training the new recruits sir," Simmons said, Harry's irritation clearly intimidating him. Harry felt awful, he'd never thought of himself as intimidating before. But then sometimes he needed to be.

"I know where he is, will you bloody well get him. If you think I'm taking HER out into the field without my number two, especially if this is some new branch of dark magic, then you must be off your rocker. Find someone else to cover the training."

Simmons whimpered his apologies and ran off. Harry looked darkly back at his paperwork.

They were all waiting for him outside when he arrived. Ron was looking both confused and angry, shooting glances at their companion as Harry walked up to them.

"What the hell is she doing here?" he growled, keeping his wand close to his chest.

"I don't like it any more than you do," Harry muttered. "But we're dealing a type of magic we've not seen before and it could be very dark and very dangerous. So we'll need her, she's spent the years since the war making herself crucial to the Ministry. She's our best hope, so keep a close eye on her." He whispered the last sentence so that only Ron could hear.

"Believe me Weasley, helping the likes of you is most definitely below me," the woman snarled. "I was once appointed by the Ministry to look after you brats and you defiled me."

"Oh shut up Umbridge," Harry snapped. "This is my mission, so you'll follow my command, and any order given by Ron, unless you want a report written about your conduct and endangering a potentially volatile and top level mission. I doubt you'd last long at the Ministry with that kind of black mark on your record. And you can forget about the retirement fund. So play nice, or I'll be forced to report you."

Umbridge shut her mouth, but the look she shot Harry was more venomous than any words he could think of. He smiled back at her as politely as he could muster, his right hand curling into a fist so that the scar with his scrawled handwriting "I will not tell lies" on top of it was plainly visible to her. He had wanted sufficient revenge for a long time, but he felt that it would never arrive.

Harry nodded and the team span on the spot, their bodies whirling into the vortex of the world and reappearing just outside the Forest of Dean. Harry nodded at Carster and Jones, who flanked them, Carster moving ahead to their left and Jones to their right. Montague hung back as Harry moved forward, with Ron and Umbridge side-by-side two steps behind him. They were getting close to the source of the disturbance and Harry felt a twitch in his skull as they entered the trees. His hand shot out of instinct to the lightning bolt that was carved into the skin of his forehead but that wasn't the source, he realised, as the others seemed to have noticed it to. It was like a shot of energy had passed through them, an energy Harry had never felt before. There were footsteps ahead of them and he halted the party with a raise of his hand.

"Wait here," he muttered and proceeded further into the forest, the footsteps getting louder. He entered a clearing, his wand raised and pointed in the direction of the footsteps. He was breathing quickly, but he had never felt calmer. This was what he lived for. The thrill of the battle, the excitement of knowing that literally anything or anyone could come out of the trees. Then, something did. A girl stumbled into the clearing, barely able to keep her balance, looking distraught and exhausted. She fell forward and Harry reached out to catch her. She was only a short thing, maybe the same age as Harry's daughter Lily, who was five years out of Hogwarts. She was pretty too, with shoulder length chocolate brown hair and a plain red dress covered in a jacket. Her eyes were shut but as he caught her, she was muttering something under her breath. It sounded like she was asking to see a doctor. Harry couldn't blame her, she looked positively ill. He guessed she was a muggle, because she had no wand that he could see. She was probably just caught in the crossfire. But even so, Harry wasn't sure he could trust her.

"Come here!" he yelled as his party converged on the clearing. "Montague take this girl to St Mungo's. Jones, Carster, we move forward to find the source. Ron, stay here with Umbridge."

They all nodded. Montague picked up the girl and carried her back where they came from, whilst Harry moved on, Jones to his left and Carster his right. He was more apprehensive than ever and could feel the tension ramping up. Or maybe that was the strange sensation that was in his head. He didn't like being this close to dark magic, it made his skin curl.

"Harry! Sir! You're not going to believe this! Come here!"

It was Carster's voice, off to his right somewhere and Harry turned and ran towards it, wand still raised. He came to where Carster had been stood and there was a small clearing. The reason for Carster's calling was immediately obvious and Harry's jaw dropped.

"Good God…"

Lily Luna Potter was enjoying a pleasant and relaxing day. She had had a long, nice sleep and had woken at noon with nothing planned for the day. Her boyfriend Lorcan was away, somewhere in France she reckoned, with his job. She hated that he could sometimes be away for days, occasionally weeks at a time but it made him happy and he made her happy. That was good enough for Lily. She had had a simple breakfast and was now strolling around the garden, tending to the flowers. Lily loved gardening. She loved the simple pleasure it brought. Bringing life to hundreds of things at a time, even if they were only flowers, brought her joy. And the colours they would produce when they grew would be magnificent. Vibrant reds and yellows, perfectly complimented by the low-level lilacs and violets in interspersing patterns across her large garden. She pulled a face as she stabbed a weed with her trowel. She wondered if she picked up gardening from her grandmother. She didn't know much about her grandmother, as almost everyone who had been close to her was now dead. They all died in the wars against Voldemort. Her father knew as little as anyone and at times she could tell how much that upset him. Still, the photo album he'd shown her had a picture of Lily Potter gardening, so Lily liked to think that in her head, her grandmother was a gardener like her. A gnome appeared out of the corner of her eye and she blasted it with her wand. The poor thing flew miles over the garden wall and out of sight. Lily giggled despite herself and returned to tending to her violets.

She was just stopping for a glass of lemonade when she heard it. The wheezing. A great, wheezing sound, like the world was going to fall on top of her. It sounded like some sort of machine but for the life of her, she couldn't figure out what. Then, the wheezing began to die down, but before it stopped completely, there was another sound, a man. He was yelling tremendously, followed by a rather loud thud. She ran out into the garden and looked to the sky, but there was nothing to see. There wasn't a cloud in the sky, nor any birds, except one in the distance, diving down to presumably catch some food.

It was what was in her garden that was truly interesting. She gasped as she ran over to her hedgerow, which had been completely flattened by what appeared to be the yelling man. He must have fallen from the sky. Lily looked around for his broom but there didn't appear to be one. Maybe that was the thing she had assumed was a bird, his broom zig-zagging off into the distance. Made sense. Or maybe he'd apparated into the sky, or arrived via faulty portkey. Both also plausible. Lily approached with caution, trying to get a better look at the man who was lying face down in her hedge. He was quite tall, with long flailing legs. He was wearing a white shirt and a grey waistcoat. His hair was a lot like her dad's, all over the place although it was longer and floppier. There was something in his left hand, it might've been a wand of some sort but it seemed peculiarly short and coloured.

"Hello?" she asked quietly, a tight grip on her wand. "Are you alright?"

The man leapt up, looking around in shock as though he had just realised where he was. Or rather, didn't realise where he was. He flailed his wand thing around and Lily jumped back, pointing her wand at him with a sense of alarm.

"Clara!?" The man yelled. He had one hell of a chin on him and she noted that he was wearing a bow tie. "Where's Clara? Have you seen Clara? I need to find Clara. I need to save Clara!"

He staggered forwards and dropped the wand thing, grabbing out for something to stabilise him. Lily clutched him carefully as he gazed at her, his eyes struggling to focus and stay open.

"Clara!" he muttered once more, before passing out in her arms.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Crash-landing

Clara was feeling nervous. She always felt incredibly nervous when flying the TARDIS, even though she had had a fair bit of practice by now and the Doctor was stood just behind her, waiting in case she made any mistakes. He'd set the controls up only slightly from basic, but it was still a struggle for her to even grasp half of what he was saying. Luckily, he guided her, his arms gently wrapped around hers and he'd occasionally squeeze her elbows for encouragement. Clara felt a rush of blood go to her face whenever he did that.

"Gently now, twist the Tranter Oscillator," came the calm and gentle voice in her ear. Clara remembered this one and twisted it clockwise, earning her a yelp in her ear as the Doctor frantically twisted it the other way. Clara swore to herself. She always went clockwise. "Phew, that was close," he remarked. "Another 90 degrees and we could have burnt out the Sun. I'm kidding!" he added hastily as she shot him a glare.

"You'd better be. I don't want the deaths of billions of people on my hands just because you want to leave me alone with your mother, I mean ship," Clara grinned as he moved away from her, his hands flying in exasperation as he settled a position on the guard rail and started playing with some controls on one of the side consoles. Clara giggled to herself. He was sulking again. He always did that when she made a mistake and nearly ended all life on various planets. Or so he claimed. Clara flicked another lever and he wheeled round like a shot.

"Oh that was right, well done!" he grinned, running a hand through his hair.

"Not everything I do is wrong you know!" Clara snorted, turning to him and straightening his bow tie for him. He winked at her. "Okay so I mainly get even the basic TARDIS flying wrong but she won't let me make any dangerous mistakes will she?"

The Doctor's face lit up and Clara raised an eyebrow. He stepped past her and laughed as he started flipping levers and toggling dials quicker than Clara could keep up. She followed him round the console hurriedly, shooting him looks that clearly meant she wanted an explanation for why he was suddenly so cheerful. The TARDIS wheezed in a way that Clara took to resemble a chuckle and she glared at the console.

"You called her a she." The Doctor grinned. "You always call the TARDIS an It but you called her a she."

Clara smiled despite herself. "Well maybe I've come to like your machine a lot more since she saved us from your time stream. She seems to like me a lot better now she understands what I am. I mean, what I did for you."

The Doctor leant down and kissed Clara's cheek. "Well anyone who's good enough for the TARDIS is good enough for me. I'd like to say vice-versa but there was a nasty incident with a Jamaican I'd rather like to forget. Poor thing never did get home…"

"To Jamaica?" Clara asked with a raised eyebrow.

"To 1757," The Doctor replied. "I dropped her off a thousand years too late. God knows how Lizzie's going to deal with it."

"Lizzie?" Clara laughed. "Who's she? Don't tell me you married another Queen Elizabeth?"

"Haha, look at me, I'm Clara, I'm so funny! Well it's all fun and games to you, but some of us keep forgetting the marriage customs of local time periods because we have the entirety of time and space jiggling about inside our heads!" The Doctor poked her forehead and turned back to the console. Clara was dumbstruck but couldn't help but burst out laughing as The Doctor fumed.

"So that's a yes then?" Clara replied coolly. "You really do have a thing for Queens don't you? Maybe I should find myself a country to rule."

"You could've ruled a thousand galaxies," The Doctor pointed out. "And oh dear. That's not good. That's not good at all." His voice had gone deadly serious. "Clara grab onto the rail and don't let go."

Clara obeyed and there was an explosion somewhere nearby. She screamed and ducked, as The Doctor ran around the console, frantically trying to stabilise the TARDIS. He cursed as he did so, never taking more than an eye off Clara as he did so. She thought it was sweet but really not helpful to their current situation.

"What's going on?" she yelled as the Doctor grappled with the TARDIS controls. "Is this something I did?"

"No, it's not your fault!" he yelled in reply. "I put the shields back up, but we've come across a space-time anomaly. One that shouldn't exist. It's some sort of Dimension Tunnel. If we get stuck in it, the TARDIS'll be dragged into another dimension. The shields should protect us, but if the time-space continuum there is different then she'll be useless. We could be trapped there. Not to mention all the time winds that could rip us apart if they're in the tunnel…" he stopped when he saw the look on her face. "Clara," he said softly, running over to her and cupping her cheek. "I'll get us out of this I promise."

"Why can't you just fly the TARDIS around or away from this tunnel?" she asked over the mini-explosions that were happening around them. "Put on the brakes or something?"

"Because, it's got us trapped in its field. Like a black hole, except it's nothing like a black hole, forget black hole, black hole, that's rubbish. It's like a magnet. Except we're not magnetized. It's positive time, dragging in negative time. Does that make any sense?"

"None whatsoever!" Clara shouted back.

"Of course it doesn't. I'd be surprised if it did. Listen Clara, there's nothing more I can do." The Doctor ran over to her, hugged her tightly and kissed her forehead. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be," Clara whispered. "Geronimo."

There was a colossal explosion from the console and The Doctor shielded Clara, as the TARDIS wheezed and groaned before going black. There was a thudding crash and suddenly they were stabilised. There was a low level hissing and The Doctor let go of Clara before turning back to the console.

"Is anything still running?" she asked quietly.

"Doesn't look like it. She's completely drained. Well, almost completely. She's still draining. But she's hanging on. We just need some sort of power source to get her off the ground. But there may be no way out. The tunnel's probably closed."

"So we're stranded?" Clara murmured and The Doctor turned to her. All his energy was gone. He seemed resigned. He turned to the door. "Where are you going?"

"To see where we've landed," he muttered. "Stay where you are Clara, the atmosphere could be toxic. We've no way of knowing without the TARDIS scanners."

He opened the doors and stepped outside. He pulled out his sonic and started scanning the area. It seemed to be not working and Clara, lingering by the doors inquisitively, raised an eyebrow.

"Why isn't the sonic working?" she inquired.

"Different energy forms here on this world. Something the sonic hasn't encountered before. It can't scan anything because the entire world, maybe the entire universe is alien to it. It has no understanding of what is standardised and what is strange. It can't even lock on to the energy signatures, they're too different to the sonic's configurations. I could fix it, but I'd need something to lock on, some source that I could use to stabilise the readings…"

"Like what?" Clara asked, but before she got an answer, the TARDIS lurched into life, dematerialising with the Doctor still outside. "Doctor!" Clara yelled but she was already moving. He jumped towards her and then, suddenly, there were in the sky and he was clinging to the edge of the TARDIS like his life depended on it. It might well have done. She reached for him but the TARDIS tipped backwards and she was thrown away from him, rolling back across the console room. She heard him yelp and the doors slammed shut as the TARDIS continued to flail for dear life. She grabbed onto the railing, just as the TARDIS came to a crushing halt.

Clara stumbled to her feet. Everything hurt. She was sure she'd either twisted or broken her wrist and ankle and her left knee jarred when she tried to walk. Her head was spinning faster than she could believe and she stumbled forwards, scrambling for the doors of the TARDIS. They opened before she reached them and she fell through, the doors shutting behind her. She felt strange, very strange indeed. It was as if she had stepped into a dream, the world around her was shaking and wobbling. It was blurry and Clara hurried on. She was in a forest of some sort that much she could figure out. She tilted to avoid trees and thankfully, she came to a clearing. There was a blurred figure there in front of her. Could it be him?

"Doctor?" she shouted, but it came out as more of a whimper. She pitched forwards and the man caught her. "Doctor…" And then she blacked out.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: The Man in the Bow Tie

He had woken up. Or, at least that was Lily had assumed, judging by the immense crashing coming from her spare room. She had put the strange man to bed in there, unsure of what to do with him after that. She knew the perfect person to talk to would be her dad but he was probably very busy and in any case, there was probably an ordinary explanation for what had happened. So she had resolved to wait until the man woke up and explained his situation. Which was now the case. Or at least it would be when she spoke to him. Lily headed upstairs and unlocked the bedroom door with a flick of her wand. She stepped inside cautiously, still slightly wary of this strange man. He was on his feet, rummaging through the cupboards for something. Lily raised an eyebrow and he stopped her. He stormed over, trying to look as intimidating as he could. Lily found herself both apprehensive of this man, and oddly amused by him.

"Where? Is? My? Bow? Tie?" he asked, punctuating each word with a movement of his feet.

Lily burst out laughing. The man stomped his foot and snatched up her wand, which she reacted to with both amusement and horror. He snatched up his own wandy thing that clearly wasn't a wand from the desk and pointed it at her wand. She lunged forward but the man was laughing, the green light at the end of his wand lighting up and he threw her back her wand.

"Now that's very interesting. No wonder the sonic wasn't working. Look at those energy feedback levels, they're frankly extraordinary. You must have receptacles like this all over the planet. Hundreds or thousands of the things, in every country. They all connect together somehow, some underlying energy field that they tap into. But they're also honed to your specific DNA. They're intelligent things. Almost sentient. Not quite but oh boy is that clever. I love it. Now then, I've tuned the sonic into the energy field, should enable it to work properly now. Where exactly are we anyway, what year and planet is this?"

His wand thing (which she assumed was called a sonic) was still humming and he was looking at her expectantly. She hadn't understood much of what he'd said at all and was still processing it.

"It's Earth, 2030," she said slowly. "We're in Gloucestershire. Near the Cotswolds."

"Ah the Cotswolds, love the Cotswolds," the man continued ranting. "I once visited the Cotswolds in 1103 with…" he trailed off, staring in horror at his 'sonic'. "No. No. No. No. Clara. Where is she? Where is Clara? I need to find her this instant!"

"I'm sorry?" Lily was confused. "Who's Clara? You landed in my garden, just out of thin air, alone. No sign of how you got here or anything. Who are you? How did you get here? What are you talking about?"

"I'm The Doctor, I'm a time-traveller from another dimension, another world far away from here. Clara, my friend. She travels with me, she's from Earth but another Earth, a twin Earth!" The Doctor paused. "We got sucked into a dimension tunnel that dragged us here. My ship was badly damaged, but it must've jerked. A final shot of time energy, like an aftershock from an earthquake. I was clinging to the edge but I fell, that's how I landed in your garden. Clara was still inside. She must be around somewhere, the TARDIS was already crashing…TARDIS, Time And Relative Dimensions In Space," he added quickly, seeing the confused look on her face. "That's my ship. Anyway, I need to find Clara. This entire planet is toxic. Not toxic to you of course," he once again saw the horror-struck look on Lily's face and backtracked. "You're used to this energy field; you've been living in it your whole lives. But Clara hasn't, she'll be poisoned by it. She could only have a few days, or even a few hours. I have no idea, depends how concentrated the field is in her location…"

"And isn't it toxic to you too?" Lily asked quickly, grappling onto what little of what the Doctor said she understood. He shook his head and pointed to his chest.

"Two hearts, it won't affect me anywhere near as quickly. Plus I have this," he pointed at his thing. "Sonic screwdriver. Now it's tuned into the energy field, I should be able to use it to stabilise it, so it isn't dangerous to us. But unless I find Clara in time…" He eyed her up and down. "Sorry I'm being rude. Who are you?"

"Lily," she replied. "Lily Luna Potter."

His face changed instantly. Shock, horror, almost a giddy childish joy all crossed his face in a matter of moments. He was grinning like an idiot.

"Lily Luna Potter?" he asked. "As in THE Lily Luna Potter, daughter of Harry Potter. The Harry Potter. Oh, this is brilliant. This is Christmas. Clara is not going to believe this when I tell her. She'll probably whinge about how he looks nothing Daniel Radcliffe but never mind, we're going to meet Harry Potter."

"I thought you were from another world?" Lily remarked suspiciously. "So how do you know my dad?"

"Because," The Doctor paused. "In our world, Harry Potter is a story. A story we tell to each other, the legend of how the great Harry Potter defeated Lord Voldemort. It's a story that gives us hope and joy and sorrow. And now I'm living in it."

"That's…" Lily paused. "You're insane."

"Yep, but I'm still telling the truth. Now Lily, as much as I'd love to chat, I need to find Clara and the TARDIS. So I'll ask you again, where is my bow tie?"

"Why do you need the bow tie?" she asked. "Why is it important?"

"The bow tie is important, Lily Luna Potter, because without it, I cannot hope to find Clara. And also, and probably more importantly, bow ties are cool."

"It's in the garden, it fell off and I didn't bother to pick it up," Lily said slowly, as the man rushed past her, haring towards the garden, Lily in pursuit. "Why is the bow tie going to help you find Clara?"

Lily felt for the poor girl. Even if this man was telling the truth, he must be a nightmare to travel with. Unless she was as mental as him, in which case, they were perfect for each other. The Doctor had thrown open the back door and found his bow tie. He laughed triumphantly and whizzed his sonic at it.

"Because, Lily. Clara straightened my bow tie," he said, as if that explained everything. She gave him a blank look and he sighed, applying his sonic to the bow tie. "That means it has her genetic imprint on it. Normally that would be next to useless but you lot, you humans. You've all been affected by this field, your genetic makeup is so totally different, so totally not Clara. And this, well this is Clara. So I can use it to find her. And when I've found her, I can stabilise her, get her into the TARDIS, try and find a power source to get them both home and, if I'm lucky, manage it before the dimension tunnel closes and I'm stuck here for all eternity. Which, believe me, for a man like me, is a long time. So, are you still with me?"

"Nope, you've completely lost me," Lily replied, raising an eyebrow. The Doctor's triumphant smile faded and his shoulders slumped. He shook his head and clicked his fingers at her. "I'm going to need a horse!"

"We have a car?" she tried hopefully. The Doctor's eyes lit up. "Oh of course, I forgot that cars worked in this reality. They shouldn't you know, what with all this background radiation or I suppose you call it magic don't you? Ha I love humans, always calling things magic."

"It is magic!" Lily snapped, annoyed at this man. "I can show you some if you like."

"Nah, it's quite easy really. You're just tapping yourselves into the psychic network that controls the energy field and manipulating it to varying degrees in order to produce various results. It's so easy a child could do it," he laughed, as if he were enjoying some private joke. "But yes sorry, you're right, magic. Let's go with that," he sniggered. "So, yes, car. You drive, I'll navigate. Ooh, timey-wimey. That'll be the TARDIS. TARDIS and Clara, this is going well. Hurry up Lily, we haven't got all day!"

"Look, why don't I just take you to my dad?" Lily tried. "He'll be a lot more help to you than I would. If there's any incidents he takes care of them…"

"Oh of course," The Doctor hit his forehead in disbelief. "You lot, you notice things don't you? Great big blue box crashes down and the entire country goes crazy, wizards would be swarming all over it. Yes take me to Harry Potter. And I can't believe I just got to say that out loud. Oh this is just peachy."

Harry was still sat by the girl's bed at St Mungo's. She hadn't woken since they'd brought her here and whatever magic they tried, she was only getting worse. She had a horrible fever. She was deteriorating quickly and there was nothing he could do. There was nothing anyone could do. The healer had told him she had maybe 24 hours to live. And all Harry could think about was what the hell was going to do with a big blue box leaking dark magic…


End file.
